Geoffrey Sullivan
Real Name: Geoffrey Francis Sullivan Nicknames: No known nicknames Location: Waterbury, Connecticut; Cozumel, Mexico Date: September 23, 1963; October 1, 1963 Bio Occupation: Pilot Date of Birth: 1935 Height: 5'11" Weight: 180 lbs. Marital Status: Married Characteristics: Caucasian male Case Details: Geoffrey Sullivan was a commercial pilot who left an airstrip in Waterbury, Connecticut, on September 23, 1963. He told his wife that this would be his last flight because he was going to stop being involved in such operations. However, four days later, he disappeared with a man named Alexander Rorke somewhere over the Caribbean. Rorke had first hired him in 1961 as a pilot to fly covert Anti-Castro missions for the CIA. Later that same year, the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion occurred. After which, the CIA began conducting their missions much more secretly, and these were the ones that Geoffrey and Alex were involved in. However, the US government soon released a public warning, issuing people like Geoffrey and Alex to stop their anti-Cuba operations. Eight days after it was issued, Geoffrey and Alex left Connecticut. The next day, they arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where they met two men. One was Franks Sturgis, who would later become involved in the Watergate Scandal. He said that Alex told him that he had a B-25 bomber and that he was planning to take it to Nicaragua, which would become a base of operations for bombing missions on Cuba. Alex soon rented an airplane and the next day, his wife picked up an unidentified man and took the five men to the local airport. Geoffrey, Alex, and the mystery man boarded the rented plane while Sturgis, his companion, and Alex's wife stayed behind. For unknown reasons, it returned to Fort Lauderdale at least three times. The last time, the landing gear remained up, and the air traffic controller instructed them not to land. Five hours later, they landed at North Perry Airport, which was only thirty minutes away. At 1:30pm that day, the plane left again, scheduling to land in Honduras. However, two hours later, Geoffrey radioed Miami International Airport and told them that he was rerouting to Panama. Finally, at 10:22pm, he said that he was rerouting to Belize. The FAA stated that he refueled the plane in Cozumel, Mexico, around midnight. This was the last sighting of it, and despite a massive search, neither it nor the occupants were ever found. Over two decades later, Geoffrey's daughter, Sherry, now a private investigator, began to search for his fate. She and her lawyer petitioned the government for information about him. More than a third of the papers that she received from the FBI were censored. She believes that even more documents were withheld for national security reasons. In the FBI documents, Sherry found the name of "Floyde Park". She contacted him, and he claimed that he had seen Geoffrey, Alex, and the unidentified man in Belize two days after they were last seen. However, she was able to get little other information from him, and she is uncertain of his true identity or his connection to Geoffrey. The only other information that she got from him is that Geoffrey and Alex may have been taken prisoner in Cuba, and that Fidel Castro was aware of their operations and placed a bounty on them. In 1986, Sherry came in contact with Marty Casey, a journalist who was in Cuba in 1965. While there, a Cuban exile told him that he knew two men from the United States, one he called "Rorke" and the other "Sullivan". The exile said that he was with them in a Cuban prison in 1963, around the time that they had vanished. Sherry believes that they were Geoffrey and Alex. Another name that Sherry found in the FBI documents was "Enrique Molina Garcia". He was supposedly a double agent for Castro's government. She believes that he was the mysterious unidentified man that flew with Geoffrey and Alex when they vanished and that he tricked them into flying to Cuba, where they were then captured. Unconfirmed reports placed him in Havana, several years after they vanished. Sherry will not give up until she finds out what truly happened to Geoffrey and Alex. Suspects: Enrique Molina Garcia is suspected of tricking Geoffrey and Alex into flying to Cuba. Sherry believes that they were held prisoner there for several years. Floyde Park is another person that she would like to identify and locate. Extra Notes: This case first aired on the December 19, 1990 episode. Results: Unresolved. In 2003, a commemorative marker for Geoffrey was unveiled in the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery in Augusta, Maine. In July 2007, Sherry sued the Cuban government and Fidel Castro, alleging that they caused Geoffrey's wrongful death. In August 2009, a Maine court found Cuba guilty of his wrongful death. Sherry was granted $21 million in damage. She now believes that Geoffrey and Alex were shot down by Cubans and that they were taken prisoner and tortured for at least a decade before being executed. Several Cuban refugees reported that Geoffrey and Alex had crashed in Cuba and that at least one survived. Former American prisoners in Cuba reported that they were familiar with someone named "Sullivan". In 1972, a private American pilot detained in Cuba claimed that he had met Geoffrey while imprisoned there; Geoffrey told him that he had been there for almost ten years. Despite the evidence, in 2012, a federal court reversed the decision. Sherry is continuing to fight to get the case back in court and hopes to recover Geoffrey's remains. Links: * Geoffrey Sullivan on Unsolved.com * Disillusioned Freedom Fighter * Planes to Hunt 2 Missing * Search For Missing Trio * Alexander Rorke, Pilot are Lost * Disappearance of Cuba-Freedom Fighter Studied * $25,000 Reward Offered in Sullivan, Rorke Case * $25,000 Offered for Lost Fliers; 2 U.S. Men and Passenger Vanished Over Caribbean * Chasing shadows * Maine woman sues Castro in father's death * Woman sues Castro in father's death * Woman sued Castro in father's death * Castro sued in death of U.S. pilot * Maine woman wins lawsuit against Cuba * Woman wins $21Mil lawsuit against Cuba * Waldo County woman suing Cuba for nonpayment of $21 million wrongful death suit * After a 30-year search, will new relations with Cuba help Mainer find her missing father? * Sherry Sullivan vs. Republic of Cuba (2017) * Sherry Sullivan vs. Republic of Cuba (2018) * Geoffrey Sullivan on Find a Grave ---- Category:Connecticut Category:Cuba Category:Mexico Category:1963 Category:Disappearances Category:Conspiracy Cases Category:Air-Related Cases Category:Unresolved